March 29, 2006

ADDED: If you're looking for the newest results show, click on the banner at the top -- Althouse -- and then scroll down to the most recent "Amercian Idol."

ORIGINAL POST: "Hips Don't Lie"? Is that really anything to brag about, Shakira? Wouldn't it be more impressive if your body parts could dissimulate?

Is it going to be the predictable bottom three? Lisa, Ace, and -- no, it's not Bucky! -- Katharine! I cheered. Great! Something exciting happened. Ooh! I hope she's sent home. I've had enough of her dissimulation.

Interesting to see the three of them lined up there: they are the three most physically attractive of the final 10. America can take some pride in our depth.

Ryan's going to send one back. I'm all let it be Ace. And it is Ace.

Ryan asks Katharine how she feels about being in the bottom two. She says, "Whatever -- uh -- God planned for me, that's all I have in my mind right now." Now, I've really had enough of her dissimulation. We see Simon with his face in his hands. He's digging his thumbs into his temples as if he's pushing back a migraine. He's a good barometer of phony.

"Leaving us tonight is" -- long pause, during which Lisa nods, with a full sense of her fate -- "Lisa." Aw. Lisa love.

UPDATE: For comments on the newest results show, click on "Althouse" at the top of the page and scroll to the newest "American Idol" post.

16 comments:

I'm not one for Americal Idol conspiracy theories. But do you sometimes think that the "bottom two" are not really the bottom two? I mean, obviously Lisa was the bottom, but, since next-to-last is functionally no different from next-to-next-to-last, maybe sometimes they switch it up for the sake of drama.

Am I smoking crack here?

word verification:wimmn. oh yes, very appropriate as I talk of Lisa and Katherine "Shaggable" McPhee.

Jinnmabe: I do think the use the actual voting and the bottom three is really the bottom three. Much of the excitement of the show is that it's an actual vote. If it ever came out that they weren't using our vote it would be very damaging to them. The quirky things like last night are the most fun things, but they wouldn't be anything if they were just scripted. They are by far best off just letting whatever happens happen. But I do think things like theme choices, order of performance, and judges' comments are done to try to affect the vote.

Silver: Bucky has a fan base, that's all. Most people may think he's bad but he's got a group that loves him. Lisa didn't. Interestingly, Katharine doesn't. I think it's cool that the less pretty singers have more fans.

By the way, the theme next week is country, so the producers clearly want to help Bucky (and challenge Chris). Obviously, they also want to help Kellie. I think they know a large chunk of their viewers are the folks who love country music.

Actually, not much of a challenge for Chris, especially if he goes for some Gary Allen. Chris's voice and attitude would fit very, very well with Gary Allen's songs (Allen is sorta Chris Isaak like, perhaps not so odd since Allen and Isaak are from Bakersfield...)

Last season, Bo turned "Disco" night into an excuse to sing "Vehicle" in a very non disco fashion. So Chris could get very far from a classical country song, country itself nowadays is often just pop or rock with a twang anyway.

jinnmabe said:But do you sometimes think that the "bottom two" are not really the bottom two? I mean, obviously Lisa was the bottom, but, since next-to-last is functionally no different from next-to-next-to-last, maybe sometimes they switch it up for the sake of drama.

Ann said:I do think the use the actual voting and the bottom three is really the bottom three. Much of the excitement of the show is that it's an actual vote. If it ever came out that they weren't using our vote it would be very damaging to them. The quirky things like last night are the most fun things, but they wouldn't be anything if they were just scripted.

I think you two just "missed" each other's thoughts here. I think what jinnmabe was saying, and I've thought this myself on many occasions, is that the bottom three really is the bottom three, but the first one they have sit down as "safe" is not necessarily the top vote getter of those bottom three. In other words, the last two people standing might not be the bottom two, but rather the bottom one and perhaps only third lowest instead of second lowest.

I think that's what stever was suggesting.

Additionally, I think the drama is added by the failure of the show to reveal anything about the actual vote totals. For example, it could be that Lisa had only 1 vote last week, but that Katherine had several million. Being in the bottom three does not necessarily imply anything even close about the voting.

Thanks, Kierk, but, yeah, I do think they play it straight. The person who is made to look like second to the last really is second to the last. For the same reasons already stated. And experience with the show reinforces that, as often the one sent right back is the one you assumed was safer, and it would have been more exciting to keep them at risk.

Ann: I'm going to disagree. They never said that Katherine was in the bottom two, only that her, Lisa and Ace were in the bottom three. And that Ace was safe. It would be to assume "facts not in evidence" that Ace was third from the bottom.

Clearly Katharine has always been a highly regarded contestant (your opinion notwithstanding) so making her stand next to Lisa as if she was at risk to be voted off, had more drama than if it were Ace, who has been skating on thin ice for several weeks. (Ace, ice heh!)

So is she in peril, what will she do to regain favor during country week? The nation awaits (and watches).

Katharine McPhee in my opinion is a far more musically talented version of Kimberly Caldwell. She's the kind of woman that you either want to make love with or make war with.

Ace Young (as I wrote in Tuesday's American Idol thread) is the kind of good-looking guy that women love and men love to hate -- a good looking guy who knows he's good looking but has no substantive talent to back it up.

Ace'll eventually fall by the wayside.

And Katharine will too, since I get the impression there are enough people who feel about her the way Professor Althouse does that she'll be lucky to make the top 5.

What JLR said is true, except that Kimberly Caldwell was no where NEAR as attractive as McPhee. And I think she'll go fairly soon, but I also think she could have quite a career on Broadway. heck, Diana DeGarmo is doing pretty well on Broadway (and how she made it to second place I'll never, ever figure out).

She's the kind of woman that you either want to make love with or make war with.

I think Bucky gets the votes of people who like the underdog. If they hadn't started this manufactured half men/half women thing a couple of years ago he probably wouldn't even have been in the top 12. The judges consistently dump on him which makes some people think they're fightin da man by voting for him.

When Ace had his mojo going he was hot, but ever since he was in the bottom 3 that first time he has gotten more and more nervous and uncomfortable. Shaking hands do not generate votes.

Your show is really starting to suck point blank i think this show is fix and its not right because the last three to be standing should of been Lisa,Mandeza,and last but not least Paris those three are the only three that get really get down when they are singing and you can truly feel there singing come from the heart so you all already made two mistakes lets see if you make the third one because if paris get kick off this show really sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!